


1001 Nights: Beginning

by GenericUsername01



Series: Star Trek Fairytales [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: 1001 Nights, F/M, Whatever you want to call it, fairytale retelling, the arabian nights, this could be rated g tbh but it has Mature Themes (tm), trans girl kirk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 12:35:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13364829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GenericUsername01/pseuds/GenericUsername01
Summary: There once was a king who hated and mistrusted women. Every night, he would take a new bride, and every morning, he would chop her head off.Until he met one Jo Tiberius Kirk.





	1001 Nights: Beginning

The great King Gary Mitchell stood on the balcony overlooking the palace’s pleasure gardens with his brother. Below, a servant girl stepped out to the fountain to fetch a pail of water.

Gary nudged his brother. “Check that chick out. Is she hot or what?”

John snorted. “A girl like that? Listen, brother. I have a wife. And I can tell you right now that there isn’t a woman in the galaxy who’s capable of staying faithful. Every day I watch my old ball and chain. She gives the visiting prince a look that makes my blood boil. She is completely inappropriate with the chief chamberlain. The other day I saw her whispering with the cook! She gives me nothing but trouble.”

“So that’s why you’ve been so worked up lately. Jealousy’s been eating at you because you have the grand misfortune of having a beautiful wife.”

John scowled and rolled his eyes. “I’m right. Just you wait and see.”

* * *

 

It was on their morning ride on the shore when they saw her. The most beautiful woman to have ever lived—she had to be. She was almost inhuman, a goddess among mortals. She was sunshine breaking through clouds and moonlight shining on the sea and thunder rolling down from the mountaintops.

She smiled at them and Gary’s heart stopped.

“I think I just met my queen,” he said.

A huge wave crashed up against the shore, carrying a massive genie with it. His skin was fiery orange and his eyes a blazing red. He immediately snatched the girl up in his hands.

He turned his eyes to the brothers, and they were so full of flames they feared they might burn. When he spoke, it was with a voice that could shake the heavens.

“Hear me now and learn from my troubles. When I took this girl for my bride, I set her inside a trunk, and I placed the trunk inside another trunk, and that trunk inside yet another trunk—seven boxes in all, each with its own lock. And then I placed the sevenfold container at the bottom of the sea, so as to keep her faithful to me. But still she managed to escaped, to flirt with strange men on the beach, and to bring shame upon me. If I, a genie with all the power of magic at my disposal cannot keep discipline over my bride, what hope have you mere men of doing so?”

At this, he turned and spun into a cyclone and disappeared over the sea.

Gary went pale.

“What the  _fuck,”_  said John.

* * *

 

He spent the rest of the day deep in thought and shared his conclusions with his brother over the balcony again.

“That thing that happened this morning, whatever it was? I can’t stop thinking about it. I think you’re right. I mean, if even a  _genie_  isn’t good enough to keep a woman faithful—“ he shook his head. 

“Yeah? But what are you going to do? You’re the king, you have to take at least one wife.”

“I have an idea.”

* * *

 

“Send for Chief Minister Kirk,” Gary commanded from his throne.

The man was brought in to him, an older gentleman with two children who he loved dearly.

“How may I assist you, my liege?” he asked.

“Bring for me a bride by this very evening. And then tomorrow morning, I want you to take her to be executed, that way she has no chance to be unfaithful. And then tomorrow, I want you to do the same thing: bring me another girl to bed and cut her head off in the morning. I want you to do that every single day.”

George paled.

* * *

 

But he did as ordered. If he didn’t, then he would be killed and Gary would simply find someone else to do the task. He at least tried to be fair about it, tried to give the families some warning and time to grieve.

This went on and on for three years straight. There wasn’t a family in the land that hadn’t been touched by the tragedy, that hadn’t been broken by the king’s cruelty. The people arranged mass protests, they called on every deity they knew to strike the king down and end his rule. 

It did nothing.

Mothers wept or fled abroad with their daughters. There was a mass exodus of refugees pouring out of the land. A humanitarian crisis. It was said that there was war on the borders, but nobody knew for sure, or if it was true, against whom. 

Finally a day came when George Kirk could not find a single marriageable woman anywhere.

He would be killed for his failure. He knew this.

At least he could spend his last night alive with his children. He walked home slowly, footsteps heavy. His entire body felt like it was made out of lead.

He opened the door to find Sam cooking dinner and Jo with her nose in a book, unsurprisingly. They looked up instantly when he came in, then did a double take.

“Tell whoso hath sorrow

Grief shall never last.

Even as joy hath no morrow

So woe shall go past,” Jo quoted. Cold comfort, she knew, but it was the best she could come up with.

“What’s wrong, Dad?” Sam asked.

“I can’t find a bride for the king tonight. If I return to the palace without one, he’ll kill me. If I don’t return at all, he’ll kill me. If I try to run away, he’ll kill anyone connected to me who I leave behind.”

Silence rang.

“God!” Jo cried. “How long is this going to go on? He can’t just keep killing us! Tell you what, take  _me_  to the king tonight. Let me be his bride. Either I’ll figure out a way to survive or I’ll die alongside my sisters.”

“That is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard in my life,” Sam blurted. “You don’t even have a plan.”

“Who says I don’t have a plan?”

* * *

 

The king took Jo to his chambers and lifted the veil from her face. He liked what he saw.

Then he noticed the tears in her eyes and it took all of his effort not to roll his own. Why did they always cry?

“What’s the matter?” he asked, knowing full well what the answer was. He liked to pretend he didn’t. It messed with their heads a bit. Made them think maybe none of the other girls had ever cried before. Some even tricked themselves into thinking that getting his sympathy would mean getting set free.

He loved those ones.

“I miss my brother,” Jo said.

“What?”

“I miss my brother. It’s my last night on Earth, I want to spend it with my brother. He’s my best friend.”

Gary laughed. “Well, alright. Let’s bring him in. He can sleep on the couch.” It was such a weird request, how could he not grant it? So he didn’t sleep with this one, so what? He didn’t always sleep with them. Some of them were too weepy to be appealing.

* * *

 

Sam tossed and turned on the cramped little couch at the foot of the king’s bed. He sighed. He checked the time.

0203 hundred hours.

“Jo,” he whispered. “Are you awake?”

“Mm. I am now.”

“I can’t sleep. Why don’t you tell me about one of those stories you’re always reading, eh? Maybe that’ll put me to sleep.”

“My stories are not boring,” she huffed.

“Wha’s going on?” Gary slurred, sitting up.

“Nothing. Go back to sleep,” Jo said.

“No. Tell me what’s going on,” he said, now wide awake.

“I asked Jo to tell me one of her famous stories,” Sam said. “That is, if it’s okay with you.”

Gary waved a hand dismissively. “Sure, sure, tell your story.” He leaned back against the headboard, content to listen.

And these are the stories that Jo told.


End file.
